Opel Product Shuffle Begins Ahead of PSA Takeover

MADRID – Opel will manufacture the next-generation Corsa exclusively at the Figueruelas plant near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain starting in 2019, by which time the brand will belong to French automaker PSA.

The Opel Mokka X subcompact CUV currently built at Figueruelas will be transferred to Opel’s facility in Eisenach, Germany. It is not yet known where Opel will produce the small Corsa Adam minicar originally slated for Figueruelas but currently manufactured at Eisenach.

Opel President and CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann made the announcements during a visit to Figueruelas to witness the first Crossland X compact CUV come off the production line. The Crossland X succeeds the Meriva, a 5-passenger MPV built on the same platform used by the Citroen C3 Aircross that goes into production in summer 2018 at Figueruelas.

Annual Corsa production is targeted at 200,000. The minicar accounted for 62% of output at Figueruelas in 2016. The next-gen version will share platforms, systems and technology with the Citroen C3 and Peugeot 208 models in one of the first synergies emerging from PSA’s pending acquisition of Opel and its Vauxhall twin brand from General Motors.

Antonio Cobo, Opel Spain general manager, says the €250 million ($272 million) Crossland X project calls for about 79,000 builds in 2017 and 100,000 over its first 12 months in production to April 2018.

Daily production of the Crossland X is 250 units but it is scheduled to reach 500 later this year. Sales could reach 4,500 units in 2017 and 11,000 in 2018, Cobo says.

Neumann initially was supposed to visit the Figueruelas plant in the company of PSA President and CEO Carlos Tavares, but Tavares instead met privately with plant workers. The head of the French automaker met the next day with Spanish President Mariano Rajoy to discuss PSA’s purchase of Opel, expected to be completed by year-end.

When the Opel/Vauxhall takeover is completed, the French group will become Spain’s No.1 automaker. In 2016, total production in the country by the two automakers reached 860,000 vehicles: 505,000 from PSA and 355,000 from Opel.